SAILING MATTERS
by the Rear Commodore, Gregg Dobson

NEWS FLASH: Lipton Cup
The L26 ‘Orion' has kindly been loaned to the club for this years Lipton Cup Regatta. A team to race in this prestigious event will be announced soon.

Richard's Bay to Durban Race
The return race was postponed last weekend and will now take place this weekend. Let's hope that those competing will have a fast and safe passage.

Sunday 4 June
That's this Sunday! Keelboat club racing offshore will be hosted by the PYC. Start at 11h00 and enjoy Durban's warm winter offshore sailing or use the day as a warm-up for the Trio Interclub Regatta.

Trio Regatta - 12; 13; 16 June
This is the next BIG regatta that the RNYC will be staging - and it caters for all tastes in sailing from the really competitive types to those who enjoy a low-key race in comfort and style.

* IRC Provincials - for the serious racer
* SAS KRS - for any of the Wednesday night boats that would like to enjoy some fine offshore sailing.
* Flying 15 Nationals

Come and support your club and enjoy hopefully pleasant Durban winter conditions without having to take a day off work - Saturday 12; Sunday 13 and Wednesday 16 June. If you have not entered yet, or cobbled a crew together, it's time to do that! The Trio Regatta incorporates the IRC Provincials and Flying Fifteen Nationals. A SASKRS class will be open to Wednesday night boats.
There is a Melges 24 coming up from Cape Town for this regatta, and a bunch of Pacer 27s from the Vaal, and rumours of at least 6 clubs competing in the inter-club component. So it should be a great event.
Bronwyn will send you the info. Just call her on 031-301 5425 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Dennis Conner International Yacht Club Challenge
The Manhattan Yacht has invited Yacht Clubs to submit entries to the 4th Dennis Conner International Yacht Club Challenge Regatta which will be sailed in J24's. It starts on 22 August. Interested members should contact Brian Plumpton (082 807 5117) or Bronwyn in the Sailing Office (031-301 5425; This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

The Jester Challenge
Now this is the king of sailing that we should encourage in South Africa. The legendary RCOD fits the bill perfectly! There are still a number of these fine craft being sailed out of Durban, Cape Town and Knysna. Unless we are talking diamonds, bigger is not better; and more importantly, bigger is not always safer. Small and tough like a Gurka is infinitely better than big and soft like a Blue Bull front rower!
The following is reproduced from the Scuttlebutt e-mail newsletter:
Think the Mini Transat is extreme? The Jester Challenge knocks it into a cocked hat. The Jester Challenge is a solo event (one mustn't say race) across the Atlantic to Newport. This staunchly amateur venture is unique in that it has a size range of 20-30ft, a start date and ports of departure and arrival but not much else. What it positively does not have is a race organisation, a notice of race or an entry fee. So although there are 89 boats and skippers on the list of entrants, no-one knows until the skippers' briefing on Friday how many will turn up or take part. It could be 40 or 60 or more. Former Royal Marine and Yachtsman of the Year Ewen Southby-Tailyour founded the Jester Challenge for small boat sailors who had been squeezed out of the big races.
When the OSTAR disallowed boats of under 30ft it effectively disenfranchised the small boats that had begun the event - four of the five boats in 1960 were 26ft or under. Southby-Tailyour's motivation was to "give back a race to boats under 30ft." So what you have is the diametric opposite of almost every oceanic race anywhere else in the world. Most of the boats are simple and low cost and their skippers disinterested in publicity. But word has got round, and since the last transatlantic Jester Challenge in 2006, some sailors have actually bought a suitable nutshell in order to take part. "I think," says Southby-Tailyour, "small boats are chosen by people as much because of the concept as the cost, although some people can't afford anything else." Now that's novel!

Crew Service
Struan Campbell has created a crew mix and match group on facebook for skippers who need crew and crew who need boats. It is open to anyone so if you need a person or a boat then put a wall post up advertising yourself. Hopefully we can start building fleets by making it easy for skippers and crew to connect. Put videos, photos - whatever you want - up there for all to see.

See the link at: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=112468105452262

Let's enjoy our sport safely! See you on the water.